The Pittsburgh Business Times published an article Friday by Pitt Professor of Law, Michael Madison. The article titled, “Getting to lawyers who say ‘yes, and …’” relates how Pittsburgh needs more lawyers versed in innovative businesses to help startup companies bring their ideas to fruition. Madison - who in the 1990s was a Silicon Valley lawyer before later coming to Pittsburgh - is now the Faculty Director of the Innovation Practice Institute at Pitt Law.

An innovation-minded lawyer in many ways means a lawyer with interdisciplinary acumen, meaning they’re able to “synthesize their knowledge of multiple areas of the law,” Madison writes, and hold a deep understanding of their clients’ businesses, markets and visions.

“In 2009, we established the Innovation Practice Institute in Pitt’s School of Law to teach our students how to become innovation lawyers,” Madison states in the article. “Pittsburgh has lots of lawyers well-versed in the intricacies of employment law, patent law and corporate finance. It has too few lawyers who are innovation lawyers at prices that startup ventures can reasonably afford.”